I love going onto Twitter and catching up with my friends and sharing my perspective with others. Sometimes they are the same:
RT @Serend1p1ty9: Genuine gratitude most powerful way to invite more goodness into your life! Have an attitude of gratitude always. Happy #humpday !
My response:
@Serend1p1ty9 Always practice this everything I do is from a place of #gratitude When you are #blessed you need to #payitforward ! #Goodness
Other times they are supportive:
RT @cdnwomenfdn: We are sharing stories of girls that are forced into #sextrafficking by using voices & faces of every day Canadians…
I thought that I’m an every day Canadian and like to support women in any way I can. So when I saw this tweet, I thought “By the grace of god, there go I…” so I decided to be the voice and face of these young women.
There’s a few profiles to choose from when you go to Canadian Women’s Foundation
I chose one about a girl in Grade 8 who met an older guy. He told her that he loved her but he forced her to do things with other men... for money. And said he would hurt her if she left him.
Why did I choose this one?
Because I remember being in Grade 8. I was 13 years old. I started my period that year. As a South Asian teen, I couldn’t speak to my mom about the physical changes that were going on in my body of which I had no control, let alone about sex and boys. I couldn’t imagine.
Recently, I had spoken to Baldev Mutta from PCHS about what was going on with some young South Asian girls in the community. They were sneaking out of the house at night to meet with boys leaving in the middle of the night and returning before anyone woke up. They are young. They are 14-16 years old. They want to be free. Independent. Have some fun. And what’s the harm? Especially if they come home. Unfortunately, they are being blackmailed by these older boys, sometimes men aged 15-20, who they have snuck out of the house to meet. They say if they don’t do as they say, they will tell the girl’s parents what they do at night and they will be kicked out. And worse, they will shame the family!
I had no idea this was happening. Did you? Did you know that young South Asian girls are being exploited and blackmailed by the same boys they trusted? Do they even know that they can talk to someone…
I remember being young and having the weight of the world on my shoulders just trying to be a “good girl” all the time. I thought my parents would be mad at me if I did something wrong - even spoke to a boy, let alone went “out” with him. But in the end, it’s not so black and white especially when it comes to a child’s well-being.
Chances are if these girls knew that coming clean with their parents may be a real alternative to being forced to do things they didn’t want to… maybe, just maybe, they would!
But all I really know is that these girls need to know that we are thinking about them… we are there for them and want each one of them to be safe.
All my love,
ME
P.S. Stay tuned for our next REALLIFEtalks where we talk about young girls in the community and what we can do to help them.